Paper or Plastic?

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We use canvas and cloth bags that we bring with us. If we don't have enough or forget, then we ask for plastic since we bring them back to the grocery store's recycling bin.

When we do get paper (mostly for liquor bottles), those get recycled with the newspaper.
 
i use the small ones in waste baskets, one in each room. sometimes i run out and that makes me crazy. also rigged a device , that holds an open plastic and i can hang open bags for kitchen garbarge. inside a cupboard door.

my newspaper puts paper into a recycle bag so it goes in trash with paper.

i don't drink enough to make it worth the trouble of saving soda cans or bottles.

babe
 
We don't really have a choice here of "paper or plastic," as it's almost completely plastic here. So, I use the plastic ones in some of the smaller wastebaskets in the house. The rest go into a separate one to be taken back to the recycle bin at the market, along with all the other plastic bags (bulk produce, bread wrappers, celery/carrot bags, etc.). For nearly 30 years I've been using canvas and rip-stop nylon bags when I shop. As Vera does, they go right back into the car as soon as everything's brought into the house.

Since we recycle so much, I only empty the kitchen trash can (13 gallon) about once every three weeks. So, we only use a few plastic trash bags per year this way. It's been amazing how little goes out since we've been seriously recycling.

All our newspapers, paper bags, cardboard boxes (cereal, cracker, etc.) are torn up and used as "kindling" in our wood stove during the cold weather months.

Everything from the paper shredder goes to dry matter in the compost bin.

Oops, we were only talking about plastic or paper bags. My bad. I'll go now.:rolleyes:
 
As far as the dogs and the use of those bags go....I don't know if you can actually call that recycling, unless you pour the contents down the toilet and wash out the bag.
Sure you can. Just look up recycling in Websters. You will see one of the definitions is "to adapt to a new use".

There are problems with paper just as there are problems with plastic. All that paper has to come from somewhere. Deforestation is a major problem just as plastic in landfills is a problem.

I see more and more stores selling canvas bag, although I can not remember the last time I saw someone using them. I know people do and I think it is great. I do not see myself doing it though unless forced to. I do what I can to be green, but no one can ever be completely green. I know that using the paper or plastic option is not the best thing to do, but for now I still will.

When we shop at BJ's though, they do not offer bags of any type. Of course most of the things we are buying there would not fit in bags anyway.
 
Yeah, one bag will. But not thousands of tons of it.
Why wouldn't 'thousands of tons' do what one can do? It's the same product. If one will break down and decompose, so will 'thousands of tons'. We learned that in third grade science. If a tree falls in the woods, just leave it there. Eventually, it will become part of the soil. Paper will do the same thing, even 'thousands of tons'.
 
What few plastic bags I end up with go back to the recycle bin at the store.

But, are they 'really' recycled?
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I usually combine my grocery shopping with my daily walks, so I either just use my bare hands to cart the few things I've bought home, or I use a back pack. When I was a Wal-mart manager, I discovered that the bags are the third highest expense in the store. I was amazed. Because of this expense, they are always looking for alternatives. Even they have begun to seek alternatives. And believe me, what they do, the rest of the world does soon after, Wal-mart knows how to save money. :LOL:
 
Plastic bags are only cheaper for the retailer if used properly! Walmart, and others are known for using 4 bags when one would have been sufficient. Trust me, a plastic bag will hold more than two or three items. Anyway, I prefer paper.
 
Plastic bag below 5 micron thick is banned here, so shopkeepers give us paper bags and I have a large jute bag, I put those paper bags in the jute bag.
 
Why wouldn't 'thousands of tons' do what one can do? It's the same product. If one will break down and decompose, so will 'thousands of tons'. We learned that in third grade science. If a tree falls in the woods, just leave it there. Eventually, it will become part of the soil. Paper will do the same thing, even 'thousands of tons'.


Chances are, long before that tree becomes part of the soil the fire will burn it. laone with thousands of more acres. Because that dried out tree is just waiting for a spark. Third grade mentality doesn't work in reality.
 
Paper for me. Now, when I think about it, in the markets I shop at ie. Trader Joe's, Von's, Albertsons, I buy one of their canvas ones for .99 cents. When I have enough in my arsenal, I'll no longer accept plastic. Now let's talk about all those disposable diapers...:ohmy:
 
I prefer to bring my own reusable tote bags. They are much sturdier than either paper OR plastic. Once in a while I will forget and get a few plastic bags in the house, and even then it is more bags than I would ever be able to use use up lining small garbage cans, etc.
 
But, are they 'really' recycled?
confused246ey1in.gif
Yes. They are taken and turned into new plastic bags and t-shirts and other things. You can't say "put your bags here, we'll recycle them" and not actually recycle them.

I try and remember the canvas bags but when I don't it's plastic but I use it for cat poop and other things mainly trash can liners and what not. If you don't tie your trash up here, it only ends up all over the way our trash trucks are. As for paper, only one store around here even offers it and that's Harris Teeter.
 
plastic here. I use paper feed sacks for trash can liners and ask for plastic when shopping. I can't keep the plastic in stock. I keep several at the barn for when folks drop by when I'm in the garden, I can send them away with a bag of veggies. And I store my own fresh veggies in the plastic bags. I do so little shopping that I sometimes run out of the plastic bags. I really appreciate the convenience of having the plastic bags to store my veggies. Yesterday i dug 13 pounds of carrots and got them all in one bag. Don't know what I will do if the plastic are ever outlawed. probably go over to cloth, but I ain't giving those away!
 

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